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Select your own sweet memories

Cookie lovers can worship at a new shrine in Bloor West Village.

By Susan SampsonFOOD WRITER

Mon., April 20, 2009

Cookie lovers can worship at a new shrine in Bloor West Village.

The Sweet Flour Bake Shop puts the custom in customer with personalized cookies to go. Pick original, peanut butter or oatmeal dough, then choose your mix-ins. There are 23, from sunflower seeds to white chocolate chips to dried blueberries. Your custom cookie is popped into a high-tech oven and baked in two minutes. That'll be $2.50, please. Or try a customized sandwich cookie for $2.25. (How about tender shortbread filled with salted caramel?)

"Ever since I was a kid, I've always had a sweet spot for cookies," says owner Kim Gans.

She points out that there are more than 15,000 possible cookie combinations at the shop. I didn't do the math, but did sample some of the goodies. They avoid additives or preservatives. And most everything is warm, including muffin tops, granola and steel-cut oats – all mix and match. For a comforting blast from the past, Sweet Flour offers single hits of raw cookie dough (made with pasteurized eggs) that kids young and old can wash down with shots of milk.

"We're modernizing nostalgia," says Gans, a transplanted American who worked 10 years in food marketing and brand management for General Mills. "For me, cookies are about memories."

Sweet Flour Bake Shop opened last month. The economic climate may be cold, but Gans believes warm memories will give her business an edge – memories of baking with mom, having fun with friends, putting your feet up and taking a sweet time out.

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